Ben Tupper

How did you get started tattooing?

I never really gave a shit about tattooing until I got my first one when I was 18. I went with a friend of mine to watch him get tattooed, he was a talented artists and had drawn his own design out, I had no idea that tattooists could do that kinda thing, all I knew of tattoos was tribal, stars and the crap my dad had on him from his military days.  I watched this guy tattoo my friend and get paid handsomely for his trouble, turned out tattooing was far more creative than I had thought and it (seemingly) paid better too haha. So, my friend was now a lot poorer but a lot more bad ass, and I wanted to be the same, so I booked a tattoo in that day, one of my own terrible deisgns of a Zombie that resembles Stephen Hawking with a face full of mushy peas. I guess I was hooked from the first tattoo, every time I got tattooed I would ask for advice on how to improve my utterly terrible drawings, probably annoyed the fuck out of the artists too, but gradually I started to draw things that vaguely resembled coherent designs and after a year or maybe two of looking, I found someone crazy enough to take me on as an apprentice.

Was it a traditional one? Where did you do it and under who?

I suppose I use the term apprenticeship lightly, I'm not one of these guys lucky enough to be able to preach about how hardcore their apprenticeship was. The first shop I was at was a disaster, but I was fuckin clueless and I must have thought it was the best shop on earth. I would do everything there was to be done that wasn't tattooing basically. Unfortunately the reality of the shop I was at soon became apparent and after some witnessing some pretty fucked up shit I decided it was better to cut my loses and run. After a while, I got my shit together and got a book of my designs printed and bound and just started giving it to anyone that would look at it, luckily someone did and was crazy enough to give me a chance, that was Roy Priestly at Skin Shokz in Bradford.  At the time, I was living in Manchester and would commute hours to Bradford every day, Roy and his Brother Paul helped me a lot, they were kind enough to let me watch them work and toss me some snippets of information when they thought I deserved it. After that I kinda did the rounds, I worked in a pretty shady shop in my hometown for a while, tattooing all the locals that had just cashed their Giro's haha. It was busy but...well, it was colorful! I also worked at Modern Body Art in Birmingham that was a pretty awesome experience, I learnt a lot being there and made some great friends, I really value that experience.

So from there you went to One Shot Charlies, where you currently work?

Yeah, I'd known Rich Hadley and Dave Watt for quite some time, we'd trade paintings and generally talk shit you know, I knew them as good guys and liked what they were doing. I'm not sure how it came about exactly but basically one day I met Lee Pound and we had a natter and I ended up there. I'm really grateful to Lee for the opportunity, it's a fuckin blast working there.

So who works at OSC? Do you guys have a focus on any particular style at the shop?

It's myself, Matthew Craven, Lee Pound (owner) and our bitch Tom Chippendale. I guess there is some sort of style coming from the shop, I don't want to say traditional, cos I don't think any of it is, but that's a word the kids will understand, so yeah traditional.

Do you guys travel to many conventions or have many guests at the shop?

Well Rich Hadley who now works at Glory Bound in Antwerp often guests, but it's a small shop man, we've had a few requests but I dunno, maybe they can tattoo from out of the toilet. Personally, I'm not that fussed about conventions, I'm in two minds about them, I think there was a time when they were productive platforms for talented artists to feed off each other, for international heads to get together you know? But more and more they're just venues for shitty tattooers to get their ego's stroked. And they're another way to glorify tattooing you know...  Not to say they're all bad, I think I'm gonna work Norwich this year just to have a laugh, some drinks, it'll be a interesting one to say the least

Yeah Norwich seems like a good one but a lot of the smaller ones seem to be a waste of time. An excuse for local tattooers to pick up an award to note on their facebook.

Yeah, pretty much. There are definitely too many these days, just shows how many shops there are too I guess.

Why do you think there are so many shops about? Do people still think there's money to be made by opening a 10th shop in a small town?

I've not been tattooing long enough to answer that mate, I've not seen it from the beginning. I do know that we get people asking how to get in to the trade every other day, people with no business asking that question. I just think it's the media, magazines, television, the internet, it's glorified left right and center.

Do you think this attention distorts what it's really about?

I don't know what it's really about! Haha, do you? It's what pays my bills and what puts a smile on my face, then again it puts a big fucking frown on it sometimes too. I don't know if it distorts anything as I'm not sure what there is to be distorted, I do think however that it's second only to being a famous rock star. People putting "tattooer" in their facebook names and all that shit, all these weird monikers people use, the pretentious crap that is becoming associated with tattooing, it's definitely a status thing these days.

So what's the average day in OSC like then?

Travel nearly two hours to work, get in, have a coffee if I have time, harass the apprentice, see what I have booked in and franticaly draw about five minutes before my appointment haha. Listen to the smiths all day and watch the special Stourbridge pedestrians out of the window.

Whats an ideal piece/client for you?

Definitely not the "do what you want" kind, my mind just draws a blank and I say skull or panther haha. Just someone who knows what they want and doesn't have any illusions of what's possible, someone that won't haggle with me.

Not haggling is always a plus haha

I really need to get around to painting a sign to ban haggling, it's on the list.

Do you get to paint much?

Not nearly as much as I should, I've like a hundred lined drawings that I've started or given up on, I'm definitely jealous of how prolific some people can be, turning out flash sheets every other week.

Where do you get inspiration for your paintings?

Google images? Ahaha. I don't know, I don't tend to paint anything whacky or outrageous, I like simple, tried and tested designs you know

Any particular tattooers who inspire you?
Too many man, I'm inspired every day. Anyone putting out solid work you know, bold lines, solid black, no pretencion.

Who have you been tattooed by?

I think i'm in the 40+ artist region now but some of the folk I can remember are Dettmer, Eckel, Todd Noble, Valerie Vargas, Stewart Robson, Andrew Elward, Troy Bond, Joe Capobianco, Deno, Geoff Horn, Sergi Besa, Lee Pound, Ruben Kayden, Sol and a lot of others.

What should we expect from you in the near future?

Not much haha. I'm just gonna keep working hard and trying to put out nice tattoos, I'll be doing a few guest spots this year that I'll keep you posted about. I might get round to making some prints out of all the half started paintings I have lying around.

What do you feel about the current state of tattooing?

That’s a hard question for me to answer, I'm new to the game myself and was not fortunate to grow up when traditional tattooing was really finding it'self. Despite that, I see a lot of negative things at the moment, there seems to be a lot of hostility amongst tattooers.

Do you think that's because of the amount of information now freely available?

I think it has created anger amongst the older generation, and I can understand why.

television and the media have ceratinly had a detremental effect on tattooing, it's created a generation of people wanting to become tattooers without knowing why, this mass of potential free labour seems to spur tattooers in to accepting apprentices with no real respect for their students future, I see apprentices doing any tattoo they want anywhere they want and soon it wil create a cycle of bad tattooers teaching bad students

I'm coming off the point here I think...

I'm seeing a lot more divisions between the different generations of tattooers over things like the internet/conventions/magazine/publicity etc. Is this something you've noticed?

for sure, noticed and experienced. If I put myself in a long time tattooers shoes, I  too would be angry at the new kids coming in and taking over. It's far too easy to make a name for yourself these days by tattooing all the shit that's popular this week you know? Like I mentioned before, apprentices are getting big before they've done a years worth of tattooing because the freedom of information is showing them the current trends in tattooing, their teachers don't give a shit so they just go ahead and tattoo whatever is cool at the time regardless of its educational value. The old timers are watching a cycle happening and it's killing off real tattooing, it's a real shame and I know I'm just another kid doing the same old shit everyone else is, but I like to think I can perceive what is right and wrong within tattooing and I hope I don't contribute to the latter.

Do you feel blogs have contributed to the decline of traditional tattooing?

Honestly, no, not at all, well at least no more so than any other media source... If you wish to share your work on a public forum such as the internet, you must understand you no longer have control over those images. You could perhaps watermark your work, but other than that, it's a free for all if people wish to share your work with others, so be it, I can't see it as anything other than appreciation of your tattooing, even if you don't need the business, no harm is being done, no one is gaining anything but you. However, blogs are another venue with which to view others work, people can draw inspiration from it or just straight up plagiarize it.

Do you have any major goals tattoo wise?

Well, I'm recently engaged and plan to settle down and have a family so ultimately my goals are to tattoo more and make money to support myself and my family

I hope to travel more, guest, work conventions, whore myself and get more business haha.

Would you like to give any shoutouts?

I would like to give thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to do this interview, to anyone that is bored enough to read my non-sensical ramblings, thanks to Lee Pound for giving me the great opportunity of working aloing side him, thank you to anyone that has gotten tattooed by me and especially if i fucked it up,  your loss was my gain, thanks to all the tattooers that have fed me scraps of information in the past, thanks to my family for supporting me as a starving apprentice...and then a starving tattooer and thanks to my fiance Jasmine for always having faith in me 

You can see Ben's work via facebook